PufferMayne

Ok, so I got my 20 gallon tank, cycled it, 2 weeks later I got two figure 8 puffer fish. First day I got them I gave them some frozen blood worms and they devoured them and they begged for more.

The NEXT day the same time I feed them they ate at the blood worms a little bit but not as much as before.

Day THREE, Blood worms are refused and ignored by the fish. So I go off to the store later that day to buy some ghost shrimp. I put the baby ghost shrimp in the tank and a puffer went for one then just ignored them up until now.

Morning of Day FOUR, I need to get them fed before I go out of town and my mom has to take care of em, so I go get snails. They turn them down.

Today their color is faded, their eyes are cloudy and not looking good.
Help!

pinkfloydpuffer

Hi
A few questions: did you deworm them (internal parasites) when you got them?
Are there stomachs flat or caved in at all?

PufferMayne

Did not de worm them that was something I didnt think about. Stomachs right now are flat and getting smaller because they are not eating, but when I got them they were a little puffy and got their little ping pong ball shape when they food.

pinkfloydpuffer

Ok... what size are they? Are they in FW or brackish? If brackish, what salinity? Did you take tests for nitrate, nitrite, ammonia? What are they? pH? Temp?

PufferMayne

they are about 1.5 inches. they are in freshwater. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, low nitrate. temperature 74

pinkfloydpuffer

If you can add a bit of marine salt to their water that might help a bit. Also, slowly raising the temp might help a bit too...
If you can find blackworms, I hear those are irresistable to puffers.
Is there any other sign of disease that you can see?

PufferMayne

Nope, but how much marine salt should I add

PufferMayne

Ok my local fish store does not sell black worms. and I put in marine salt and surprisingly they both regained alot of their normal color. But they are still refusing blood worms that I just put in and they arent touching any snails or ghost shrimp

pinkfloydpuffer

I'm glad the marine salt seems to have helped. F8s are best kept in a salinity of 1.005-1.008SG
Hm... I'd say just keep trying any foods you can think of... even like crickets, mealworms, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, daphnia... whatever you can find that's meaty.

PufferMayne

alright then thanks

pinkfloydpuffer

This might help: http://www.fishlore.com/aquariummaga...gurepuffer.htm

PufferMayne

ok. so one is lying now at the bottum of the tank curling its tail but still flapping its fins and looking around, and when i touch it moves a bit then goes back down, i really hate seeing it like this is there any way i can humanely put it out of its misery.... because all their doing is starving to death

PufferMayne

also near his backside near his "hole" has a yellow spot near it....i dunno if thats anything

pinkfloydpuffer

I'm not sure about the yellow spot...
Tail curling is a sign of stress...
Before you decide anything, I think it would be a good idea to join and post at The Puffer Forum. There are many puffer keepers there, so you can get lots of opinions.
I really hope you can figure out what's wrong. Good luck.

PufferMayne

Ok updates.
yellow dot is gone
one of them is becoming more active and he is begging for food more now and he ate a few blood worms
the other one (foggy eyes bad color) is swimming more
eyes havent cleared up and he side fins arent that good looking
have yet to see him eat though but his stomach looks like he mightve eaten a little

pinkfloydpuffer

Maybe it's some sort of fungus making his eyes cloudy? If you think so, you could use Rid Fungus (it's all-natural)

PufferMayne

Not sure. But hes not going to last much longer unfortunatly I have never seen him eat and he just floats around but i can see his gills moving and sometimes his fins when he feels like swimming, but he doesnt look good. the other one looks good though

pinkfloydpuffer

All I can think of at this point is lots of waterchanges for extra clean water.
I hope he makes it.